Rideau Park United Church

Text: [1]	Luke 8:1-3
[2]	John 20:1-18

In 1945, in the desert at Nag Hammadi in southern Egypt, two local men came across a sealed ceramic jar. Inside, they discovered a hoard of ancient papyrus books. Although not as famous as the Dead Sea Scrolls, the writings of Nag Hammadi actually turn out to be much more important than the Scrolls in giving us a picture of early Christianity. They are a cache of Christian texts written in Egyptian Coptic, treasured writings of a late fifth century Christian community.

One of the documents discovered at Nag Hammadi is the Gospel of Philip, a book in which Mary Magdalene is a key figure. During their long burial in the desert, some of the books were attacked by ants. In this gospel, the ants made a hole in a very crucial place. The text says:

And the companion of the Savior, Mary Magdalene. (...) loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her (...) The rest of the disciples (...) They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered them, "Why do I not love you like her? When a blind man and one who sees are both together in darkness they are no different from one another. When the light comes, then he who sees will see the light and he who is blind will remain in darkness.

The gap in the text, which hides where Jesus kissed Mary tantalises scholars. If that blank were filled in it might say something about the relationship of Mary and Jesus.

Now the gospel of Philip is not in Scripture. It was written much later than the canonical gospels, many centuries later. So it is not "gospel truth". But the words do suggest, whether it is historical or not, that Mary was seen in a fifth century Egyptian Church, as someone who had a special relationship with Jesus and as someone with special insight into his words.

This morning, as with last Sunday, I am going to share with you the story of one of our ancestors in the faith. Last week it was Timothy of Seleucia. This week it's the famous, or sometimes infamous, Mary Magdalene. Timothy was someone that we probably knew nothing about. With Mary, before we can talk about what we know about her, we have to talk about what we have heard about her...

---------

Mary Magdalene, called Equal to the Apostles in the Eastern Orthodox Church, is a figure wrapped in myth and legend, in speculation and story. And one of the most common modern speculations around Mary is the question of whether Mary and Jesus were husband and wife.

The Gospel of Philip, with the help of some hungry ants, prods the imagination and leads people to speculate on the relationship of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Some modern writers, notably Dan Brown in the novel The Da Vinci Code (2003), suggest that Mary Magdalene was in fact the wife of Jesus.

What evidence is there to suggest that Mary and Jesus were married? There really is none. Some writers pick selectively from a variety of ancient tales to support their argument. But in truth, while sources like the Gospel of Philip depict Mary Magdalene as being closer to Jesus than any other disciple, there is no ancient document which claims she was his wife.

One argument for support of this speculation is that bachelorhood was very rare for Jewish males of Jesus' time, being generally regarded as a transgression of the first mitzvah or divine commandment: "Be fruitful and multiply". It would have been unthinkable, the thinking goes, for an adult, unmarried Jew to travel about teaching as a rabbi, as Jesus certainly did.

A counter-argument to this is that the Judaism of Jesus' time was very diverse and the role of the rabbi was not yet well defined. Celibate teachers like John the Baptist were known. Celibate communities like the Essenes existed in Jesus' time. It was really not until after the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 CE that the role of the rabbi was made uniform in Jewish communities. So maybe a single celibate travelling rabbi would not have been so scandalous a thing in first century Judea after all.

The fact that Mary Magdalene appears with more frequency than other women in the canonical Gospels and is shown as being a close follower of Jesus is another factor that leads people to speculate the she may have been married to Jesus. Mary's presence at the Crucifixion and at Jesus' tomb, while hardly conclusive, at least resonates with the role of a grieving wife and widow.

On the other hand, if Mary was his wife, Jesus might have been expected to make provision for her care as he did for his mother Mary when he was on the cross.

So there is no conclusive evidence to show that Jesus was married to Mary... but some people do like the idea.

--------

If Mary Magdalene was not married to Jesus was she then a prostitute, a sinner, a woman of ill repute? Another line of thinking has Mary as a woman with a very tainted past.

In the year 591, Pope Gregory the Great declared that Mary Magdalene, Mary the sinner, and Mary of Bethany from the gospels were one and the same person.

Gregory blended Mary Magdalene with the woman who was a sinner in Luke 7:36-50:

"And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment."

And he then blended in Mary of Bethany, the sister of Martha and the resurrected Lazarus too. And as early as the third and fourth centuries, Mary was also linked to that adulterous woman that Jesus rescues from the mob, in John's gospel, saying, "let he who is without sin throw the first stone."   John 8:1-11

But all this blending is not helpful, and in 1969 the Catholic Church restored Mary Magdalene and the woman who was a sinner and Mary of Bethany to three separate identities, ending 14 centuries of confusion.

----------- -----------

So Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute and there is no evidence to suggest that she was married to Jesus. So what is left? What do we know?

Her name, Mary Magdalene, gives us the first real clue about her. It suggests that she came from a town called Magdala. There is a place called Magdala, 120 miles north of Jerusalem on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Magdala means "tower of salted fish", so we know that she was a Galilean, from a town dominated by the fishing trade.

Her name, Mary "of Magdala", could suggest something else too: that she was unmarried. A married woman would have carried her husband's name and Mary didn't. She was named by the place that she came from.

Mary was a constant companion of Jesus and followed him and the apostles throughout his ministry in the cities around Judea. She, and other devoted women in his following, supported his ministry, giving of their own possessions. Luke 8:1

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus cast seven demons out of Mary. Perhaps her healing led her to follow Jesus.

Mary Magdalene was present at the foot of the cross with Jesus' mother Mary and the apostle John. Mary was mentioned first among women at the crucifixion in the gospels. Matthew 27:56, Mark 15:40, John 19:25

Mary was present at Jesus burial at the tomb, and witnessed the stone being rolled to seal its entrance. Matthew 27:61

Mary was first to appear at the tomb the next morning, to witness that the stone had rolled away. Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10, John 20:1.  At the tomb, Mary Magdalene is the first one mentioned in all synoptic gospels, and the only one mentioned in the gospel of John.

Mary Magdalene was the first to witness the risen Christ, in fact, the first to preach the resurrection, to the apostles themselves. Mark 16:9, Luke 24:10, John 20:18

--------

There are many stories and much speculation surrounding Mary Magdalene. A medieval story goes like this: during a dinner with the emperor Tiberius Caesar, Mary Magdalene was speaking about Christ's Resurrection. Caesar scoffed at her, saying that a man could rise from the dead no more than the egg in her hand could turn red. Immediately, the egg turned red. Because of this, medieval paintings of Mary Magdalene sometimes depict her holding a red egg. Also, for some this is an explanation for dyeing eggs at Easter.

There are many stories. But we do know that in a time when women had no place or status outside of the home, it is a woman, Mary Magdalene, who has the most prominent role in the most crucial moment in the gospel story. She is the one to whom the Risen Christ first appears. She is the one who ventures out on Easter morning to go the tomb, while the men all huddle behind locked doors. She is the one who carries the news of the Resurrection back to the Apostles.

In the Eastern Church, they give Mary Magdalene some titles to honor her. She is the Apostle to the Apostles because while the apostles proclaimed the resurrection of Christ to the whole world, it was Mary who proclaimed the resurrection of Christ to the apostles themselves. And she is Equal-to-the-Apostles because she was the first messenger sent by the Jesus himself to announce his resurrection. Mary Magdalene. Apostle. First Witness to the Resurrection.

Thanks be to God. Amen.